The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-03
M0RE0F THE HIGHERLAW
THE SHOOTING OF MNEELY BY
THE SHACKELFORD BROTHERS.
People Condemn the Brothers For
Waiting So Long Before They Slew
The Higher Law Ought to be Exc
c,,+a6 Mora O11icly1u

The Higher Law Ought to be Exc
cuted More Quickly.
From, the Ne1c York Su1t
New ORLEANS, April 27.-When, in No
vember last year, DIR. T. G. Ford, of Snreve-
port, shot down the seducer of his wife on
Canal street, in this city, his act was almost
universally approved DIR. Ford was ar
rested, charged with murder He refused to
go to trial in order to keep the details of his
wife's infidelity from being exposed in the
courts, and pleaded guilty of manslaughter.
Immediately from all parts of the State
| came a demand that he be pardoned. Gov
McEnery himself called for a pardon
The press Of the State with
one exception, urged it, declaring
that while the law of Louisiana did
| not encourage or tolerate murder, "the
| higher law" ard public opinion not only jus
| titled n man in shooting down the seducer of
| his wife, daughter, or sister, but made it his
| duty as a man to do So So unanimous was
the demand for Ford's release that on March
| 10 the Board of Pardons released him, and
he left the Parish prison a free man and a
| hero.
Within barely month of his pardon
another appeal TO the higher law had been
made, which is pulling the supporters of
that doctrine very much, and convincing
| them that it, like the statute law, needs some
| provisions and restrictions, and that it is
sometimes dangerous to allow private ven
! geance to punish the crime of seduction.
This latest murder which is causing great
| excitement on Red river, and may at any
| time be followed by other homicides or a
hostile meeting between the friends and
| families of the victim and the murderers, is
| the killing last week of n C. McNeely by
! Gus and Walter Shackelford, for the seduc-
ton of their sister. All are of good families,
| and both parties have many followers and
partisans McNeely is the nephew of C. c.
Nash, one of the most prominent men in the
| parish, Sheriff in 1872, and leader in that
| fearful political disturbance which on Easter
| Sunday, 1878, resulted in the death of over
a hundred negroes and is known as the Col
| fax affair. More than a year ago Nc
| Nicely, who was a married man at the time,
seduced Miss Shackeford, and her seduction
soon became known to her relatives.
Public opinion required that they should
avenging the wrong fell upon Gus Shackel-
ford, the brother. In cases like this, where
an appeal is made to ''higher law" it is not
| necessary to give the victim any notice. The
despoiler of female virtue, the destroyer of
the home, is treated like mad dog, and
| any close relative of the woman he has
ruined is justitied-so says public opinion
|
| ham, without giving him any chance to de-
| fend himself. Accordingly, it was arranged
that young Shackelford should conceal him
| self in the court house, where his lther,
| who was Clerk of the court, had an office
and as McNeely passed by on the way to his
store should shoot him. McNeely passed
the retreat of the brothers, Gus Shackeford
had his gun aimed at him; but fear, or
| mercy, or some other cause, prevented him
from shooting, when he had the seducer's
| life in his hands, and McNeely escaped,
| Finding that the brother would not kill
the offender, the Shackelfords contented
| themselves with insisting that McNeely
leave the country, threatening his life if he
remained. He obeyed the order, and left
| Grant parish for four months. Then he
began to appear at Colfax, the county seat,
at intervals of a week or ten days, and
finally made his stay there permanent. Gus
Shackelford also had left the parish, but re-
| turned about the same time. For a while
a shooting scrape between the two men was
| expected, but as days and weeks and months
went by and they passed each other without
IAN affair, people began to feel easy again
| and to imagine that the Shackefortls had
| determined to forget the affront and not to
revive the unpleasant story of the seduction.
| The tragedy OF last week proves the error
| of this belief. The Shackelford brothers
| Gus and Walter, watched their chance
| with the logged determination of slaying
McNeely whenever rare opportunity pre-
| sented itself
On Wednesday last they lay in wait for
him i'll the very room III which year pre-
vious they had stationed themselves to kill
him, and as McNeely passed the court house
the two brothers opened on him with their
| shotgunS. There was no defense; there
could be none. He died where he stood, his
body showing eleven buckshot wounds a
majority in the back.
As McNeely had many friends, public
| opinion naturally ran very high. The two
1-Shackelfords virtually admitted the killing,
as they surrendered to the Sheriff The lat
| ter feared to confine them in the parish jail
lest the McNeelys might break into it and
| lynch or their friends and relatives attempt
to rescue them.
Such is the story of the murder Are the
two Shacllelfords justified by 1.-THE higher
| law" is what cannot be determined by the
advocate. Public opinion hesitates, and the
Colfax Chronicle, which was willing to sup
port Ford for killing the seducer of his wife,
is not willing to justify the ShackelfordS for
killing the man who ruined their sister. 1t
says:
| Had this killing taken place year or
several months ago, when hot blood ran
high, the unwritten law of the land which
| tolerates the staying of a man who invades
the sacred precincts of home, would, in a
measure, have condoned the crime in the
eyes of the public; but to wait and wait and
wait, until the matter has become cold and
clammy, and then to waylay the victim and
kill him in the presence of his wife and fam
| lily i'll such deliberate manner. is so horri-
bic TO all fair-minded people that they can
not think of such deed with any degree of
| patience. As it is, the condition of the I'M
| fortunate sister is made worse by stirring
up fresh comment, and the two young men
will have to go through life with the stain
of a fellow creatures blood constantly
weighing them down, and the further proba-
bility of felon being branded ON them"
II the Chronicle voices public opinion in
Grant parish and the State, rs it probably
does, Ford was rightly pardoned, but the
| ShackelfordS will be punished The higher
law must be executed promptly. DR.. Ford
| himself waited some months before aveng-
! lug his dishonor, and the fact weakened his
case in the eyes of many; the Shackelfords.
who waited a year, waited too long, and are
murderers, with no right to appeal to the
higher law IN view of these two cases,
II is evident that the higher law will nave
TO determine more accurately the time
within which the seducer must be killed.
Grandmother's Sewing.
From The queen.
Sewing machines have revolutionized the
working world; but when see, as only